Fernwood Fitness founder, and business powerhouse Diana Williams is interviewing me on my journey as a female entrepreneur and how art and business have a lot in common. The beautiful thing about this particular interview, is that about ten years ago when I produced my first podcast show, Diana was one of my first guests. So it’s an honour to be in the guest seat and have Di enquire about my experiences founding and leading The Room Xchange along with other interesting business and artistic insights.
Women Supporting Women podcast, is produced by Fernwood Fitness. If you’re a woman in business or a budding entrepreneur looking for insightful business tips, their latest podcast will be a treat. We talk a lot about business and then we talk about the art of business.
Ludwina Dautovic with @Fernwood #WomenSupportingWomen podcast. Life of a female entrepreneur: startups, significant moments, success & stellar recommendations. Interviewed by @Diana Williams.
How art and business have a lot in common
In our conversation, Di and I began with talking about my company, The Room Xchange. We broke down the steps required to be a founder and how I run our house sharing platform. We also talked about the tools I need, how to research, experiment, test and measure.
We quickly moved to my passion for art. There were so many intricate business lessons that often come up for me with my art.
The discipline in and of itself requires similar skills to business. Being able to negotiate a commissioned art piece is one example of how my art and business are intertwined.
When creating art, I’m in constant state of decision making. In fact I’d say there are 100’s of decisions being made through every painting. They can be small or large decisions but you’re constantly making them. I need to prioritise the steps I’m taking when painting. There is an order and structure to the process of art and I cannot deviate from it.
They both take courage and structure
There’s no room for perfection in art or business. It’s an interesting balance of knowing when something is good enough and when it’s finished. It’s a similar process with business. I can’t wait for it to be perfect, otherwise we’d never launch.
Persistence is required as there are moments in a painting when it becomes painful. Have a listen to see how I describe this process. It’s quite an interesting analogy.
Art is all maths based. Once you know the mathematic equation, the rest is easy. It’s the same with business. It has order and structure and if I know what that is, it’s easier to formulate.
There’s no room for fear in art. I have to trust my gut instinct and go for it. It gives me a great sense of achievement especially once I started selling my artwork.
The art of conversation. Painting has helped me be a better conversationalist. In the 12 years I’ve been producing podcast interviews I’m continually having to make decisions, gather my thoughts, think ahead and be creative on the spot.
Ultimately, there’s something very satisfying about being an artist. Art is very similar to being the founder of The Room Xchange. In both cases, I created something from nothing; a blank canvas.
"Art is very similar to being the founder of The Room Xchange. In both cases, I created something from nothing; a blank canvas."
